River Readers

Nova is a twelve year old non-verbal girl with autism who is in foster care. Her mother could not take care of her and her sister Bridget so they were taken away. Bridget is 5 years older and has always been Nova's caretaker. She understands Nova when no one else can. Unfortunately, Bridget and Nova are separated right now. Nova is with a new foster family who seems to understand and support her more than previous families. Nova has been labeled non-verbal, severely retarded and unable to read or write. But her new family comes to realize those things are not entirely true. 

Corinne is back from her adventures with the mermaids and Mama D'Leau but she knows things are resolved yet. When an out of season hurricane hits the island, she knows something is up. Then another storm follows quickly behind it and Corinne learns that the god Huracan is responsible. It seems the jumbies had and agreement with Huracan that they would stay in their respective spots (land, sea, air), but Mama D'Leau and Papa Bois have broken that agreement to be together. Corinne herself unwittingly broke the agreement when she took Severine to the deepest part of the ocean. 

Faryn and Alex live with the Jade Society in San Francisco's Chinatown. Their parents are both gone so they are being raised by their grandfather Ye-Ye. They are outsiders in the Jade Society because their father refused to follow the new leaders who wanted demon fighting to be secondary to making money. During the Lunar New Year celebrations Faryn actually fights a demon with the help of a god. She doesn't tell anyone but it is revealed when the god, Erlang Shen, crashes their celebration and announces that she is the Heaven Breaker, the great general for the Jade Emperor.

Indira has been waiting forever to be chosen to go to Fable. She just knows she is going to be the hero in a story. When she is finally chosen things don't go as planned. She fails her auditions and is put on the side character path at school. But her adopted family is great and she starts making friends. Then things start going wrong at Protagonist Preparatory. Students are missing, Indira's homework ends up blank even though she completed it, and her adviser gives her bad reports from her teachers.

This guide is great for those of us trying to navigate they/them pronouns. It is sometimes hard to wrap your head around but keep trying. I know I am. I mess up, but correct myself and hope to do better the next time.

Aisulu lives in with her family in a ger in the Kazakh mountains. They are nomadic people who move with the seasons as their herds need. Aisulu dreams of being more than a dutiful daughter. Her brother Serik is the prince of the family, destined to oversee the family one day as their uncle has no children. Tragedy strikes one spring day when Aisulu and Serik are caught in the mountains during a summer blizzard. Aisulu finds out that Serik has a lame leg and he believes it will cause him to lose his place in the family. Then they see an eagle and Serik sees a way to redeem himself.

Deception picks up right where Contagion left off. Shay is convinced she is the cause of the epidemic, not realizing it is really Callie. So Shay has turned herself in to the Army who of course want to whisk her away to do secret research on her. So Kai and Callie are on their own and Kai of course can't see or hear Callie. Callie knows she is the true cause of the epidemic. It is following in her wake and millions are dying around her. So what does she do? Of course, follow Kai to heavily populated areas. 

A ghost, a girl with supernatural powers and a hot guy battle their way through an epidemic. Of course they did not start out that way (except the hot guy). Callie is our young ghost. She was part of an experiment in a facility on Shetland Island. She was cured of the plague but didn't survive the cure by fire they treated her with. After the facility is overrun by the deadly contagion she escapes to the mainland of Scotland. There she tries to find her family. 

Iris is a deaf girl in a family of mostly hearing people. Her grandparents were also deaf, but her parents and brother are hearing. Iris feels isolated both in her family and at school where she is the only deaf person. She does have one deaf friend who goes to another school. Iris becomes obsessed with the whale Blue 52 after learning about him in science class. Blue 52 is a hybrid whale who sings at a different frequency than other whales. So he cannot understand others and they cannot understand him. Iris identifies with Blue 52 and makes a song for him.

Moth lives with her mom in Founders' Bluff. When she discovers she is a witch she sets out to find out more about her history and why her mom has hidden it from her. What she discovers is that her mom and grandma and other witches were persecuted by the Kramer family and forced to flee this world for a new one. There they stayed, never aging, until her mom came back to the real world to live out her life. Turns out Moth isn't the only one with a family history.

Ember and Ness are best friends in this grim tale. When Ness dies, Ember learns there is an inbetween place where Ember still exists. She believes she can bring Ness back to the real world. I struggled to finish this one because it was so grim and there were questionable aspects of the story. Ember learns of her friend's death not from her father but from the school principal at an assembly. Then she is basically kidnapped and traded for a dead dog by her uncle. Of course this lets her know about the inbetween place but still uncle should have been punished.

This cute graphic is about a shy, middle school aged girl who is so quiet and shy she feels invisible. Then one day the worst thing imaginable happens (in the mind of a middle school girl, anyway) how will Emmie handle it?

I truly enjoyed Emmie’s story and loved the artwork and the sass in some of the drawings and cute little quirks of humor that were throughout.
 

Lucy loved growing up as the daughter of a marine biologist mother and a diver for her father. Her mother’s passion was great white sharks but her mother died some years back and ever since, she and her dad just get by. Lucy’s best friend, Fred, and his whole family helped as much as they could. When another tragedy strikes, will Lucy be able to overcome the grief a second time?

Claudia’s best friend, Monday, is missing. She hasn’t shown up at school and Claudia hasn’t heard from her since she returned from being away over the summer. No one will listen to Claudia, who insists something is wrong. Is Claudia over reacting or is Monday not the person Claudia thought she was.

Robinson is being raised by her grandpa. She has no knowledge of her mom other than that she is dead. She doesn't even know her mom's name. She has so many questions for her grandpa but he refuses to speak of her background. His memory is slipping and Robbie is afraid that she may never know if she waits too long to question him.